A live blog of Jack Thompson's Saturday morning keynote address to the ultra-conservative Utah Eagle Forum has been published at Mormon Bloggers.

Judging by the post, Thompson delivered his standard anti-video game rap. The disbarred attorney apparently also laid out his latest strategy to legislate games:

The impact of aggressive, violent, and pornographic videos simply can’t be denied. Jack cited case after case in which people like a young Devin, immersed in things like Theft in the City, went home and shot his parents, saying to the police, something to this effect: “Everybody has to die, just like in video games.”

The man who killed on Trolley Square, said Jack Thompson, was apparently training on Theft in the City or something similar. One part of that violent video illustrates an individual going to a high point in a mall and shooting in random people he doesn’t know. This training ground has made victims in Columbine, in Miami, in Paduka [sic], and needs to stop here.

Jack Thompson– attorney, crusader in fighting the entertainment media’s marketing of violent materials to minors, and author of Out of Harm’s Way–is supportive of an upcoming a bill, which if drafted properly and put in the hopper here in Utah will stop the sale of these games to minors.

Currently, the Fraud and Deceptive Trade Pact Act says that if you sell a product and misrepresent what it does or is, it is simply fraudulent. Walmart, Target, Best Buy assert in corporate sites, statements, and press releases that they will not sell a mature-rated violent to a minor. Age verification software, though available through Ideology and other programs, are dismissed by these companies. This is something we can enforce.

If you’d like to know more, check with Eagle Forum. If you are informed and are willing to make a call, please let your legislators know that this bill should be passed.

GP: Couple of points here... The blogger characterizes Thompson as an attorney, but as GamePolitics readers know, he was disbarred for life by the Florida Supreme Court in October. As we pointed out last week, the agenda for the Utah Eagle Forum event also lists him as an attorney. At this time it is unknown whether the audience for Thompson's keynote address was told of his permanently disbarred status. If so, the blogger makes no reference to it.

Clearly unfamiliar with video game issues, the live blogger also gets a few of the details wrong. But that's not unexpected as Thompson was apparently going on about several cases in which he blames video games for violent crimes. The "Devin" mentioned by the blogger, for example, would be Devin Moore, who killed two police officers and a dispatcher in Alabama, not his parents.

Most amusingly, "Theft in the City" would be Grand Theft Auto, of course.

UPDATE:In relation to Thompson's scheme to legislate games in Utah, the question now becomes whether the disbarred attorney has any state legislators on board. We would suspect that Gayle Ruzicka, the politically influential president of the Utah Eagle Forum and an ally of Thompson's, will be able to persuade someone in the legislature to introduce Thompson's bill.

Could the sponsor end up being one of three Utah legislators who also spoke at the UEF convention? Those would be the controversial Sen. Chris Buttars (R) as well as Reps. Carl Wimmer (R) and Christopher Herrod (R).

UPDATE 2: In its coverage of the UEF convention, the Deseret News makes no mention of the proposed video game legislation, but quotes Thompson's verbal shot at President-elect Barack Obama:

Outside of social issues, conventioneers and speakers alike expressed concern about the upcoming term of President-elect Barack Obama.

"On Jan. 20 we are entering what I believe will be a time of peril for this country," said speaker Jack Thompson. "And that is Barack Obama."

UPDATE 3:Thompson e-mailed GP to assert that he made his disbarment known to the UEF convention audience:

I told everyone there I was disbarred, and said in my first speech that I was a 'recovering attorney.'

Comments

"The man who killed on Trolley Square, said Jack Thompson, was apparently training on Theft in the City or something similar. "

Long time GP reader, but I had to finally register to comment on this.

I own a business that was located in Trolley Square Mall when that shooting happened. My staff and customers were fortunate in not being victims. 30 seconds difference in timing of the events and that would not have been the case. Its took quite some time for things to feel normal again.

I would love Jack to site any credible source for his statement connecting "Theft in the City", a real game, or anything gaming related, to the Trolley Square shooter, Sulejman Talovic. Come on Jack, I know you read these. Prove your not an opportunistic liar, using tragic events for your own ego.

You can't, because your statement is knowingly false. In fact police specifically stated they found no computers or gaming consoles in his house.

Its no surprise the Conservative Utah Eagle Forum would be willing to listen to a disbarred hack like Jack Thompson. It lets them conveniently place blame somewhere else. If you really look at the event, the only source of blame it is real world violence, and real world guns. Talovic came to the US as young refugee from a war torn Bosnia. Whatever he experienced in that real world violence effected him in ways that went unaddressed and unresolved, and his juvenile record showed a history of violence. Talovic was able to purchase a gun illegally through a pawn shop.

So the issue here is should not be about selling violent video games to minors, but about selling guns to violent people.

According to Deseret News blog comments, he claims he was disbarred because the video game industry and a corrupt lawyer who is involved in a cocaine cartel are responsible for his disbarrment. My thoughts were consistant with, "WTF?! You lying *&^%$#@"

"As to my disbarment, that was asked for by the video game industry and by a Florida lawyer who has since been indicted by the federal government for laundering money for the Medellin cocaine cartel. I am in the US Supreme Court about all this, and I will get my license back. If you can judge a man by the depravity of his enemies, then I am one heck of a good guy!"

Jack, jack, jack....lying is bad for you. It slapped you in the face dozens of times. It is going to get worse if you make comments like that. Judging by the depravity you show to your enemies, I bet there is a special place reserved for you....chances are it isn't in heaven :)

It's season 7 so it hasn't aired yet, they haven't set a date for season 7 but it'll probably be in the spring. Although for all we know the video game episode could be the last episode of season 7.

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Debates are like merry go rounds. Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.

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Debates are like merry go rounds.
Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.

He moves his support around depending on who he thinks he's going to get the most traction with. He was busy writing smarmy letters to Palin whilst, at the same time, bragging about how he worked with Hilary Clinton, her arch-rival, as it were, regarding Hot Coffee, neither Republicans nor Democrats particuarly like flip-floppers, and Thompson is the ultimate flip-flopper.

I think the fact that 250 people attended out of a State that has a population of 2.5 Million really helps to put things into perspective to be honest. Basically, just under one percent of one percent of the population of Utah were listening to him.

I'm gonna be blunt. Anyone abusing horrible events like Columbine for their own political agenda, quickly tossing away any facts and experts except a few raving lunatics and conversative nutjobs to keep their blindfolds on and refuse to admit the truth, deserves to be locked away forever.

Like EZK taught me, Jack is all talk. The fact that I'm 19, and can clearly see that his plan will once again fail is an epic fail for Jack once again. Case in point, his supposid plan wouldn't make it past anyone because when they realize tha he's just another nutjob, they'll trash it.

Our legal system may be bad sometimes, but it does manage to know the difference between right and wrong espeically when it comes to Jack Thompson.

Plus I think this is a way for Jack to try and freak us out and clearly, I could laugh in his face all day.

Also, wasn't he hating on mormons a while back?

Add that to the jump ship list which includes

Jumping from McCain to Obama

and I forgot what eles he has done to jump ships but who cares? Definitly not me.

With regards to 'Thompsons scheme to regulate games', I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find that it was someone elses' scheme and Thompson was on board as a 'Henchman'. Thompson has even been known to use the phrase 'we' regarding events that he isn't even remotely involved in, which implies a vast over-arching conspiracy to ban games ;)

As a conservative, the radicals at the Eagle forum DO NOT at all represent my beliefs. These far-right fascist loons are not what true conservatism is about. TRUE conservatism is about letting individuals choose for themselves and keeping the government out of people's bussiness. Also couldn't they at least use someone with a little more credibility. Craig Anderson as much as I can't stand him at least is still a certified psychologist. Also the fact that they would use someone who was disbarred for life for professional misconduct really speaks volumes about this organization.

Liberals are just as guilty of trying to curtail our rights to choose what media/content we consume.

The Liberal Nanny/Socialist State = Conservative Theocracy.

Both put absolute control of your life, social freedom, economic freedom, and choices in the hands of the government.

Conservatives seem less likely to deny this, where Liberals get their panties all bunched up when you point out this little "inconvienient truth" to them. Freedom means more than just anal sex and recreational drugs- it also involves your right to choose media to consume, economic paths to take, and other important facets.

Since when was France known for having conservatives? Last I checked they were pretty liberal (especially compared to our country).

Oh and it's not regular conservatives so much as the neo-cons just like neo-libs are also annoying.

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Debates are like merry go rounds. Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.

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Debates are like merry go rounds.
Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.

yeah, something else I noticed, there's no comments for that story. When I tried making one, I noticed it needed to be moderated before it got posted. Which tells me that they are trying to squelch speech on that site. I find it hilarious

An ignorant man blogs about another. How gauche, even for ultra-conservatives...

Also, maybe it is just a singularity given the mass of information, but whenever I go buy a violent/mature video game or movie at Walmart, the cash-register's computer always asks the clerk if the customer is at least over 17... even for 13 y.o. products. Wether or not the clerk would bother checking out my age, an age-verification system is in process.

Not trying to defend Walmart and their despicable (sp!) business ways, but proving ignorant blogger wrong is right. Right?

I'm not surprised that not only did they paint a picture of him as some kind of holy warrior, but they fail mention that he was disbarred for life. After all why would they let something small like facts get in the way of their agenda.

Someone (with better programming skills than me) should totally make a game with this title. And make it completely cartoony and non-violent, just to make these anti-gaming fools wrong in one more way.

Does anyone else find it interesting how much conservatives talk about wanting smaller government, free speech and free markets and then do a complete hypocritical reversal and say they want more laws and government involvement in whatever conduct that they don't "agree" with, controlled speech in what they believe is "not-family/christian" and a restricted market on products they don't like?

Sure, kids shouldn't be buying mature rated games. However, that should be the parents responsibility in what their kids play. If I have a kid and I feel they can handle a mature game, then that is my choice. Govenment should be more worried about taking care of trying to figure out how to fix the economy, social securiy, etc.

I've met a few self-proclaimed conservatives who insist that all that bad stuff was liberal philosophy and that those who limit speech and non-family stuff aren't true conservatives.

And still I betcha I can find a liberal who thinks PCism is more of a conservative philosophy blah blah blah.

It's why I don't use those labels because everyone seems to have their own definitions of them.

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Debates are like merry go rounds. Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.

----------------------------------------------------
Debates are like merry go rounds.
Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.

Yeah everyone knows those definitions but they really don't apply to politics.

For instance: apply the lotion liberally

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Debates are like merry go rounds. Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.

----------------------------------------------------
Debates are like merry go rounds.
Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.

As far as 'Theft in the City' is concerned, he might be deliberately not using the name 'Grand Theft Auto' due to the settlement he had a long time ago with T2/R* where he wasn't allowed to badmouth the companies or their products. He's been dancing around that settlement for a long time now but maybe he does realize that standing up in front of a conference and saying that GTA trains kids to be murderers might piss them off and, unlike random press releases on internet forums, might not be so easy to weasel his way out of in court.

Shout box

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Sora-Chan: Con't. Games like AC are a pain to someone like me who likes to play games in order. So when a game gets too many releases too quickly, it puts me off. Only exceptions are games that have no interconnected underlying stories like the FF games.03/31/2015 - 2:53pm

Sora-Chan: Wikipedia has rarely let me down on matters like this. But yeah... AC needs a break.. like two.. or three... or eight years.03/31/2015 - 2:51pm

Conster: There's 9 already?! I think I played 1, 2, and the ones inbetween 2 and 3.03/31/2015 - 2:23pm

Sora-Chan: Con't There are now Nine... of just the main entries into the series. There are 13 more in the "other games" department.03/31/2015 - 2:15pm

Sora-Chan: I tried to get into AC. Was having a decent time with the first one, at which point they had already released three titles. Then a fourth came out... then a fifth... the wall kept growing before I could finish the first.03/31/2015 - 2:14pm

Daniel Lewis: I think ubisoft should give AC a break before it's milked to death,and i'm a big fan of the games03/31/2015 - 1:15pm

Daniel Lewis: The only thing said i disagree with is the final quote on Men's experiences are seen to be universal but women are gendered,though doesn't anita say that games with male protagonists are male power fantasies,so in turn both are gendered03/31/2015 - 1:08pm

Daniel Lewis: i found the video to be much better than any of the TvW series and it's about time the positive women are put in the spotlight03/31/2015 - 1:06pm

Daniel Lewis: So feministfrequency released a positive female character video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXmj2yJNUmQ03/31/2015 - 1:05pm

Daniel Lewis: I think the guy who made the direct leak said it was an april fools joke when a real one was announced03/31/2015 - 12:43pm

MaskedPixelante: No way Nintendo would let information like that get out. Remember, they shut down a memoir about the localization of Earthbound by enforcing a 20 year old NDA on the author.03/31/2015 - 12:42pm

james_fudge: Conster: the larger issue is that Ind. does not protect LGBTQ+ people under state law03/31/2015 - 12:11pm

PHX Corp: @MP I think it is confirmed(not an April Fools joke) http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/31/nintendo-direct-confirmed-for-wednesday-april-1st/03/31/2015 - 12:00pm

Conster: Apparently Pence intends to amend SB101 so denying service isn't allowed - without explicitly protecting LGBT+ and while still allowing the many other things you can get away with now if it's motivated by your religious beliefs.03/31/2015 - 11:53am

MaskedPixelante: http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/30/rumour-nintendo-direct-on-april-1st/ A supposed full leak of tomorrow's Nintendo Direct, so you can all laugh and laugh about how wrong it is.03/31/2015 - 11:35am

PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/why-a-tekken-7-character-is-being-called-a-phoney-1694724959 Why a Tekken 7 Character Is Being Called a Phoney03/31/2015 - 10:08am

Michael Chandra: Argh. Anyway, I'm glad that move was made. Wonder if it counts, can he just declare it like that? 03/31/2015 - 9:27am

Zen: Conster - Good, it's a BS law that exists to just allow hate basically. Glad people are standing up to it. Sadly it should never have passed to begin with though.03/31/2015 - 8:39am